Original scientific paper
Ivan Kukuljević in Dalmatia in 1854 and 1856: mediaeval monuments as a footing of Croatian national identity
Ivana Mance
; Institute of Art History, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this article, the author analyses and interprets the image of the cultural and the historical heritage of Dalmatia that Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski (1816–1889) created during his two visits to this region in mid sixth decade of the 19th century (in 1854 and 1856). The author’s main thesis is that this image represented a significant change in the historiographic and historical-artistic interest for Dalmatian past and its monuments that had prevailed until that time. Kukuljević’s biased treatment of the mediaeval period as the historical heritage deserving priority on the national level was placed in opposition to the long-time dominant notion of the cultural and historical identity of Dalmatia based on the Antiquity cult. The author places Kukuljević’s attempt to rename Dalmatian historical landscape to the cradle of Croatian mediaeval past into the context of the history of Croatian lands, emphasising thereby the striving for including Dalmatia into the process of Croatian national integration as crucial ideological motivation. By analysing Kukuljević’s discourse, the newly awakened interest for the architectural heritage of Croatian mediaeval period is illustrated; it is further indicated to the changes in the evaluation of the monumental heritage, as well as to the expected, i.e. characteristic methodological mistakes. Having placed Kukuljević’s approach to the cultural and historical identity of monuments into an adequate epistemological and historical context, the author confirms the importance of his contribution to the development of the historiographic and historical-artistic interest for the cultural and the historical heritage of Dalmatia.
Keywords
Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski; Dalmatia; mediaeval cultural heritage; Antiquity cult; national identity; cultural history
Hrčak ID:
148925
URI
Publication date:
2.12.2015.
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